Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II

L/UNA Files

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of International Administration (Ingram) to the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Hickerson)¹

[Washington,] October 31, 1951.

Subject: Abuse of Privilege of Residence and Deportation

The contention of VD is that any activity by any person covered by the Headquarters Agreement other than activity in their official capacity and for the purpose for which they were admitted to the United States deprives them of status under the Headquarters Agreement at our option. Under this view, deportation would not depend upon whether or not the activity which we consider the abuse of privilege of residence was grounds for deportation, but simply upon whether or not they were deportable under the immigration laws when deprived of the protection of the Headquarters Agreement.

It is our view that it was the intention of the Headquarters Agreement to provide that, in any case in which a person abused his privilege of residence, he could be deported for that reason. The history of the negotiations involved in the drafting of the Headquarters Agreement supports this view, i.e., it was the intention of the parties who entered into the Agreement that this should be so. The intention of the parties has significance similar to the intention of Congress in determining the meaning and obligations of the Agreement.

The history of the negotiations also seems to show that the principal reason why it was not specifically spelled out in the Agreement that only “unlawful activities” would amount to abuse of privilege of residence was that it was desired to preserve the discretion of the Secretary of State where it might be desirable to subject a person to deportation because of his lack of bona fides or for subversive activities where no provable crime was involved.

The view advanced by VD does not even make all communist correspondents deportable. It would affect only those admitted by the 9th Proviso. Activity which would render Hitschmannova² deportable would not render a Tass³ correspondent deportable.

1. Drafted by Richard J. Kerry, Administrative Attorney.
2. Miss Marcelle C.V.B. Hitschmannova, an alien journalist accredited by the United Nations Secretariat for residence in New York for one year, ending in March 1951; see letter from the Secretary of State to the Attorney General, November 8, p. 75. This was a recurring case.
3. Notation here in the source text: 3 (4) visa”.